Walk-behind vs. riders

Gina Kellogg Hogan

Dan Copeland, vice president, S&D Lawn Maintenance (Oldsmar, Fla.)

The most obvious difference is price when choosing between riding or
walk-behind mowers. When making the decision on which mower to use, the
first thing the owner gets is shock at the price difference. However, price
does not get the grass mowed. You need to evaluate the amount of grass to
cut in relation to how much time you have to make a profit. Although a
walk-behind may have the same deck size and ground speed as a commercial
rider, the rider will cut more grass. The reason: operator fatigue. In
Florida, for example, the summer heat is brutal. Operators here simply
cannot keep up with riders. In addition, with mulching a priority these
days, it is sometimes required to run over the clippings a second time to
disburse the debris. Again, the walk-behind operator wears down in doing so.

The second difference-one not so obvious-is that a mower must be
user-friendly. Most first-time operators tend to fight for control of
walk-behinds. The hand controls on most models require strong hands and
great coordination. Experienced operators handle these machines with the
grace of a ballerina. Riding mowers, however, tend to take less time to
learn with new operators [producing more work] on the first day. Of course,
both mowers have the potential for damaging turf or landscaping with
inexperienced operators. However, given a choice, I would take the rider. I
can cut more grass in a day with less fatigue and-as an often-overlooked
benefit-my company appears more professional and prosperous by using riders
vs. walk-behinds.

At Mariner's Point, we've found that in certain applications such as
greens, approaches and other high-traffic areas of the golf course, a
walk-behind mower is clearly the better choice for two reasons. First, the
quality of cut when using a walk-behind mower is far superior than what we
achieve when we use a triplex for mowing these same areas. The turf tends
to have a more upright growth pattern, better color and more root mass when
regularly mowed in this manner. The second reason is the lack of compaction
due to using a smaller, lighter machine in areas that already can be highly
compacted from the foot traffic of more than 65,000 golfers per year.

However, when choosing which type of mower to use, you also need to take a
good, hard look at the crew that will be carrying out the mowing program.
When a competent, motivated and well-trained greenskeeper is behind the
walking mower, the benefits are almost instantaneous. In contrast, an
unconscientious employee can negate these benefits by incurring damage
inflicted from poor turnaround technique or with a loping gait that jostles
the mower up and down giving you an uneven cut at best and can even damage
the plants.

Tight time constraints and the labor lost when you devote members of your
crew to a hand-mowing program may seem problematic at first glance. But
embracing such a program can result in great benefits for your turf-not to
mention the added benefit of compliments directed toward you as players
enjoy the visual effects as well as the increased playability of your
healthy, vigorous turfgrass.